Sated with Music

Full orchestra practice was AWESOME today!! Zhen Cao Ji laoshi conducted us today. Like, oh my Gosh. And is he good! Today was like the best full orchestra practice I'd ever had. Fruitful and thoroughly enjoyable. Even though it was kind of scary cos he's such a... living legend? I don't know, he's just superbly good! And seated right in front of him, I was totally freaking out when he walked over and took over the conducting. My heart was beating erratically and I was so stressed and nervous. It was like "Oh no! What if I play wrongly? What if my rhythm goes off? What if I went accidentally sharp or flat? What if, what if, what if..."

But whew! He went into such minor and specific details that for the first time, I am hearing the set piece differently. The erhu part sounded SO nice! The crescendo and rapid decrescendo, before following a crescendo again totally portrayed like a whole wave of emotions. I felt swept away by that wave. Like, whoa.

After CO practice today, I went for Qin Li-Wei's concert with the Conservatory Orchestra at the Esplanade Concert Hall. I met up with Marcus for dinner before that though. He'd wanted to go as well, but the tickets were all sold out. So while I went for the concert, he was scouring for the music score of "Across the Stars" for me in the Esplanade Library. Heh.

The concert was mind-blowing. The first piece was Bloch's Concerto Grosso No. 1 for String Orchestra with Piano. There were 4 movements altogether and my favourite is no doubt the 2nd movement, Dirge (Andante moderato). Then it was Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33. And this is where Qin Li-Wei comes in for a cello solo.

It was absolutely wonderful. And he did a spiccato with 5 notes. And the spiccato was perfect. I was leaning forward in my seat. Hahaha. He played with such gusto and emotions that he lifted off his seat. It was amazing. He was amazing. The crowd wouldn't stop applauding. My hands were aching from applauding non-stop. One guy even stood up. There were shouts of "Bravo!" And it was indeed a fantastic performance.

Then it was a 20 minutes intermission and after that was Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suites No. 1 Op. 64a & No. 2 Op. 64b. There were 7 parts altogether and I like "The Montagues and the Capulets" and "Romeo & Juliet - The balcony scene, Romeo's variation, Love's duet". The ending piece was good too, "Romeo at Juliet's grave, Death of Juliet, End". Everything was wonderfully portrayed and brought across. The love, the sadness, the sorrow, the conflict between the two families, the fighting scenes. It was enthralling. And the audience was good. No one clapped in between movements, which is how it should be. You're not supposed to applaud in between movements.

Of course there was an encore and it was one of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Number 4 actually, according to Marcus after I'd hummed it to him after the concert. And of course, it was enchanting. I am totally charmed.

So after the mind-blowing concert, I went to meet the nearly-dead-from-boredom Marcus, whom was reading some Galaxy Hitchhiker don't-know-what novel in the foyer area. Then we had supper in Gelare at City Link Mall. Hot fudge chocolate sundae!! How sinful, I'm so gonna get fat. Then we talked about music all the way home.

Awesome day! :)

(Long enough post for you, Marc?)